


An Open Door

by emptybackpack



Category: Toki o Kakeru Shoujo | The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-20
Updated: 2010-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-13 21:31:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/141928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emptybackpack/pseuds/emptybackpack
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Makoto knows the future's coming for her whether she likes it or not, so she's going to tackle it with the insight she's gained and the friends she's still got.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Open Door

**Author's Note:**

  * For [meredyd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/meredyd/gifts).



"Where's Chiaki?" Kosuke asks her every day for a month. She won't answer, she can't, and it makes her wake up at 2 AM with tears on her face. A month to the day after the last day Chiaki comes to class (or the last day that Kosuke remembers, at any rate) he stops. She appreciates it. She knows she'll tell him one day, years from now, if they stay friends. She trusts that they will.

In homeroom, the chalkboard still loudly declares the two options available for her future. "ARTS," it asks her, or "SCIENCES." She hadn't been sure before, but now she knows what she wants to do. She can ask her aunt for advice. She can tell Kosuke's surprised at her sudden decision on what she wants to go for as a career, but he doesn't say anything. There's just the briefest of raised eyebrows and an _Okay_ when she tells him, "I want to go into art restoration like my Aunt Kazuko."

Kosuke has decided he'd like to be a doctor. She teases him about his goodwill toward humanity until she finds out that Kaho will be studying microbiology, after which she teases him even more. She's happy for him, happier than she thought she would be, remembering her jealousy over the fear that he was breaking up their trio and her even more subdued, clamped-down-on jealousy over what he has with Kaho.

At their graduation, the summer sun is high and hot and Makoto is sweating in her long robes, anxious for it to be over, anxious to start the future she's suddenly had laid out for her, waiting with arms stretched out. She's so distracted by the clinging of the plastic not-actually-fabric to her armpits and by thoughts of what she wants to do this summer before university starts, endless karaoke and teasing Kosuke about Kaho and maybe a trip to the beach for all of them, that she trips on her gown in front of everyone. Kosuke catches her by the elbow, dragging her back upright before she wipes out completely. Makoto goes bright red and hopes that nobody will remember this a month from now, but of course her mother has snapped a picture. She's embarrassed when she finds out, but she keeps it in the frame her mother gave it to her in on the bookshelf with her art history books at her university dormitory. She finds that, even though things have changed so much, she's actually happy.

Kosuke calls her from his university in another city, leaves voice messages where he asks if she's found a boyfriend yet and tells her she's going to end up an old maid while Kaho giggles, shocked, in the background. Makoto texts back that he shouldn't get his hopes up, and also she's waiting for a wedding invitation. She doesn't get a response to that for a while, and then a :-P smiley shows up in her inbox an hour later, while she's eating dinner with her roommate. Her roommate asks if the text is from her boyfriend, and she replies, "No, even better."

University is harder than she'd expected it would be. Maybe she got too used to the ability to go back and fix her answers when she could still leap. Either way, it takes much of her concentration to get through her classes with good grades, top grades, because that's what Auntie Kazuko said she'd need to get a position at the museum. Even still, she always makes sure she keeps up with Kosuke. They call frequently, text more, and some weekends she takes the train to go visit him and, later, stay in the cute little apartment he and Kaho have together.

Kosuke pulls her aside one of these weekends while Kaho's at a review session for her classes. He gets a box off of the top of the tallest bookshelf in the apartment, brings it to her, waits and watches expectantly as she opens it to peer inside. It's about as nervous as she's ever seen him look. "What do you think?" he asks. "Is it good enough?"

Makoto breaks into a grin as she examines the ring in the small velvet box. Then she punches him in the arm. "Of course it's good enough!" She snaps it back closed and hands it back to him, more excited than she's been in a long time. "Besides, if you're _insecure_ about it, you can buy her a bigger one once you're a fancy doctor. When are you going to ask?"

"I want to wait until she's graduated," he says. "I don't want her to feel like she's obligated."

Makoto gives him a look that she tries to make convey _You're crazy and of course she'll say yes, I can see how much she adores you,_ but guys never seem to pick up on these kinds of things. So instead she hits him again and tells him to hide it and to make sure the moment he gives it to her is special, it's one of those things people always screw up and you can't take it back.

The moment Kosuke eventually chooses is their five-year class reunion. He gets down on one knee in the grass outside the school under the fairy lights, takes her hand. Makoto's watching it from a distance. Kaho makes the loudest sound Makoto's ever heard out of her, half a shout and half a squeak, says yes and wraps her arms around his neck while everyone stares. Makoto should scold Kosuke for not picking a more romantic moment, but really, he hasn't done too bad.

An hour later, after Kaho has disappeared with her best friends to be shown around and shown off to everyone, Makoto sits on the grass with Kosuke and looks out over the mingling crowd. "Do you want to hear a story?" she asks him.

Kosuke must hear something in the tremulousness of her voice, must see something on her face, because instead of making any comments about how aren't they too old for stories now? he just nods.

"Alright," she says, "don't make fun of me for this later." She takes a deep breath and flops back on the grass, heedless of any potential stains on her dress. "Once upon a time there was a girl who discovered that she had suddenly gained the ability to jump through time," she begins.


End file.
